How do IT guys get respect and not become BOFHs?

An anonymous reader writes: I work for a small software company (around 60 people) as the sole IT guy. It's my first time in a position like this and after about 1.5 years I'm starting to get a bit of burnout. I try to be friendly, helpful and responsive and I get no respect whatsoever. Users tend to be flat out rude when they have a problem, violate our pretty liberal policies constantly, and expect complex projects to be finished immediately upon requesting them. My knee-jerk reaction is to be a bastard, although I've avoided it up to this point. It's getting harder. For those of you who have been doing this a lot longer, how do you get a reasonable level of respect from your users while not being a jerk?

From another IT guy

[lifesizeactionfigure]

I love my job and what I do and I've been at it a little more than a year and a half. This was also my first IT position. It's (almost) perfect for me. In my company there's several smaller satellite offices and the corporate office. I'm the 2nd tier support guy at the corporate office so when the helpdesk can't fix things over the phone or VNC / Shadow I get to go take care of it. My situation is completely the opposite from what you've described. I've always gotten nothing but respect and admiration